1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable protection and guide apparatus configured to be used for work machines, electronic apparatuses, construction machines, industrial robots, conveying machines and other machines. The cable protection and guide apparatus protects and guides flexible cables and hoses such as electrical cables, optical fibers and fluid supplying hoses. The cables and hoses transmit electrical signals, power, fluid, and/or air.
2. Related Art
As shown in FIG. 12, a prior art cable protection and guide apparatus (referred to appropriately as the “apparatus” hereinafter) 500 comprises a large number of link frames 510 bendably connected in a cable longitudinal direction between a stationary end bracket 530 fixed to a cable stationary end F and a mobile end bracket 540 provided at a cable mobile end M. Each link frame 510 is composed of a pair of lateral link plates 511 and connecting plates 512, 513 crosslinking the link plates 511 on inner and outer circumferential sides of bent cables (referred to as the “cable-bend inner or outer circumferential side” hereinafter). The apparatus 500 protects and guides the cables (not shown) which extend from the cable stationary end F to the cable mobile end M as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-121736 (see Paragraph [0003], FIG. 13) for example.
However, the prior art apparatus 500 as described above has the following cumbersome problem. That is, because the apparatus 500 assumes a polygonal movement in which the link frames 510 draw a polygonal orbit when the apparatus 500 bends, the link plates 511 do not smoothly land on a guide rail G, thus generating a collision noise between the link frames 510 and the guide rail G when the cable mobile end M moves horizontally in a right direction in FIG. 12 for example.
The apparatus 500 described above also has the following problem. That is, if the cables are shifted in a cable longitudinal direction relatively to the link frames 510, the cables directly slidably-contact the connecting plate 513 on the cable-bend outer circumferential side, thus possibly generating a slidable-contact noise between the cables and the cable-bend outer circumferential side connecting plate 513. This causes wear and damages the cables.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cable protection and guide apparatus configured to suppress such collision noise generated on the cable-bend outer circumferential side between a peripheral member and link frames due to the polygonal movement of the link frames and to suppress wear and damage of the cables caused by the contact with the cable-bend outer circumferential side connecting plate.